by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

SAN ANTONIO - When it finally ended, he wasn't quite done. The scoreboard read Oregon 30, Texas 7, 0:00. After 16 seasons, Mack Brown was no longer employed. But there were still obligations, tasks that had to be completed. Interviews, conversations, thank-yous, handshakes, countless embraces.

It was a very long goodbye.

On his way to the middle of the field, surrounded by two dozen cameras, Brown stopped Marcus Mariota. The Oregon quarterback had run and passed the Ducks to an Alamo Bowl victory. In the process, according to Brown, he "looked like one I saw for play for us a while back."

And like one the Longhorns haven't had in a while. Which is why the Longhorns' fifth loss of the season, their 21st in the past four years â?? and their 16th in their past 20 games against ranked opponents â?? greatly resembled so many others.

Monday's preferred narrative, at least from a Texas perspective, wasn't subtle. After Brown's resignation earlier this month, the Longhorns hoped for a sweet send-off. Fans at the Alamodome wore burnt orange shirts with the message "THANKS MACK," and chanted "Thank you, Mack." As it played One Day More from Les Miserables, the Texas marching band spelled out "MACK BROWN." Even Bevo, the mascot, wore "MACK" on his halter.

New Texas athletic director Steve Patterson, while deflecting questions about his search for Brown's replacement â?? except to say he wanted a hire by the time recruiting reopens Jan. 15 â?? praised Brown and said he hoped for a nice ending.

"Mack's had a great 16-year career here," Patterson said before the game. "He brought a national championship. He's operated with class â?? no issues in terms of recruiting or academics or ethics. We'd all love to see him go out with a win."

Instead, Brown went out with a loss that resembled too many others. A 16-year tenure that featured 158 victories and a BCS national championship fizzled in the last few years for many reasons, but the last loss unfolded in familiar fashion.

On the third play, senior quarterback Case McCoy's pass was tipped, then intercepted. Oregon's Avery Patterson returned it for a touchdown. Midway through the fourth quarter, another McCoy interception turned into another Oregon touchdown, which pushed the lead to 30-7 and ended any lingering thoughts â?? there couldn't have been many â?? of a comeback.

"It's tough," McCoy said. "We would rather have gone out with a win, for sure. We love the man. The man loves us. Inside that locker room, we know we fought for him. That's all that matters."

Together, the pick-sixes served as bookends to a game that served, in some ways, as a microcosm of the program's decline. Since Vince Young and Case McCoy's older brother Colt McCoy, the Longhorns' recruiting misses and resulting quarterback mediocrity â?? almost inexplicable, considering the state's wealth of high school talent at the position â?? have been well-documented. Oregon didn't hit on all cylinders, scoring just one offensive touchdown, but the Ducks were in control almost all the way against the one-dimensional Longhorns. McCoy and freshman Tyrone Swoopes combined for only 56 passing yards.

"Guys played hard. We couldn't move the ball as well as we needed to," Brown said, a refrain that could have applied to so many other games. "The offensive guys tried. It just didn't work."

The postgame resembled so many others, as well. Brown congratulated Mariota, then Oregon's first-year coach Mark Helfrich, and then one last time, he stood with other Longhorns, right hand raised, index and pinky fingers extended in the familiar "Hook 'em" sign, and sang The Eyes of Texas.

What was he thinking? "I wish we would have won," he said.

Then he and his wife Sally headed for the locker room, which was packed so full of staff members and friends of the program that several late-arriving players had difficulty wedging their way inside.

A few minutes later, Helfrich was on the field, amid the Ducks' celebration with a microphone, congratulating Brown for "a phenomenal, iconic, legendary career." Brown was in the interview room. He looked tired, but he handled a half-dozen questions about his departure with customary grace.

"It's been a wonderful 16 years," he said. "It's been a great ride."

He said he'd spent the time since his resignation Dec. 15 exclusively preparing for the Alamo Bowl. "I haven't really thought much about tomorrow," he said. He joked, sort of, that he would probably wake up Tuesday morning at 6 to watch game video. He said he told the players to "Stay out of trouble tonight, that I didn't need (to get) a call."

And Brown also said he didn't regret resigning.

"I think it's best for Texas," he said. "It's best for me. It's best for the players. We need to win more than eight games. I really thought we had a chance to win all the games this year. It didn't work. It's my job to make that work."

Not anymore. Brown acknowledged the program had slipped. He had returned Texas to status as an elite power. "He made the program nationally relevant again," said Longhorns offensive coordinator Major Applewhite, the former quarterback. But since playing for the 2010 BCS championship, the Longhorns haven't won more than nine or lost fewer than four in a season. Brown suggested "new energy, new staff, new ideas" are needed and said he exhorted the players to "get back in the top 10, back in the BCS mix next year."

With that, he was finished with one more obligation. Brown waited to hug all three players beside him â?? McCoy, Malcolm Brown and Jackson Jeffcoat â?? as they stepped off the dais in the interview room. Then he headed back down the corridor, stopping several times to speak with people; mostly, it was traded thank-yous. A half-hour later, he reemerged from the locker room, carrying his grandson "Little Mack" Ryan in his arms.

What comes next? Brown said he doesn't know, because, "I've never been here before."

Sally Brown said in the next few days, the couple would take off for "someplace warm, I hope, and try to figure out the next step. I'm sure it will be great." And a moment later, she rejoined her husband just inside the Alamodome's main tunnel. As they got into a taupe Audi, a police officer approached, wondering: "Is he good? Does he need an escort?"

"I think so," a Texas staff member answered. "I hope he's good."

The police officer spoke into a radio: "Mack Brown is coming out in his Audi, go ahead and let him out" â?? and then the car rolled up the ramp. A quick turn and Brown was gone. It was 10:02 p.m.

Two minutes later, escorted by motorcycle cops, one bus filled with Texas players, staff and family members pulled out. Then another. And then another.